PATRIARCHY author: Victoria Sau

Patriarchy is a structure that is unwritten yet tacit in society; I repeat this as something of a catchphrase, but now I am going to put it down in writing, which is as much as putting patriarchy down in writing, and I am going to try to explain it to my best. The fact that patriarchy as a structure is unwritten is obvious; otherwise, it would work like a Statute, a Constitution or even the Ten Commandments of Christianity. We would have its text before us, subject to possible review, alteration or replacement with another. If patriarchy had been committed to writing, perhaps we would have got rid of it long ago and replaced it with another order of things, but this is not so; it is a floating institution, rather like smoke that envelops everything but cannot be grasped. This is why it is so important to analyse it, break it down, capture its every particular; in a nutshell, to write it down. So that it can be read over and over again, discussed, criticized and disqualified to the point of extinction. It is not merely a case of "jotting down".

Download document in PDF format

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF PATRIARCHY author: Dolors Reguant

Patriarchy is the primary construct on which all present-day society stands. In an attempt to define it, we may say patriarchy is a form of political, economic, religious and social organisation based on the idea of male authority and leadership and comprising the predominance of men over women, husband over wife, father over mother and their children, and the paternal line of descent over the maternal one. Patriarchy rose from a historical taking of power by men, who appropriated the sexuality and reproduction of women and their offspring -their children- and at the same time created a symbolic order through myths and religion in order to perpetuate it as the only possible structure.

Download document in PDF format